Nothing screams Christmas like children dabbling with sorcery. Which is why Harry and the Potters' annual Yule Ball is such a howling success every year. This Sunday, the fourth installment will kick off at the Middle East downstairs right as darkness sets in (i.e., 5 pm doors for the all-ages constituency), and the line-up will leave young and old agog with giddy delight. Plus, three bucks from each ticket sale will go straight to the Harry Potter Alliance, a grass-roots organization of Potterphiles who fight rape in Darfur and genocide in Burma. Specifics can be a real downer, so we'll follow the HPA's lead and just call them "the Dark Arts in real life." Below, a sampling of what's in store.

Harry and the Potters"PHOENIX SONG"You really haven't rocked out till you've seen a Harry and the Potters show. Little kids lose their shit and roll around on nightclub floors, parents attempt to dance, hipsters relax a little, and you leave with a strange desire to quash evil. We picked this song with a flicker of hope that it was about us, but it's not — it's about all of us. Sniff.

The Whomping Willows"WIZARD ROCK HEART THROB"Rhode Island seems to be a hotbed of this wizard-rock business. At the top of the Rhody heap stand Draco and the Malfoys (also on the bill), but Providence's Whomping Willows are becoming fast favorites. This track tells the origin story of the band, with Draco himself advising the young Matt Maggiacomo that "wizard rock bands/Are the sweetest bunch of bands/And most of them are girls/And you're basically a man."

The LeeVees"HOW DO YOU SPELL CHANNUKKAH?"The LeeVees' mission, as we understand it, is to create a catalogue of high-quality Hanukkah songs — because, really, how many are there? This one addresses a question that had our heads spinning like a dreidel just one sentence ago, and the answer remains far from clear. As singer Adam Gardner (of Guster!) details: "Back in elementary school/A Spanish kid told me/That it starts with a silent 'J'/But Julio was wrong."

Jason Anderson and the Best"LINDSY"Jason Anderson doesn't sing about wizards, potions, or Jews (well, not specifically), but as far as we can tell from his free downloadable EP For the Ladies, he does have at least one topic worthy of multi-song concentration: the ladies. "Caitlin" and "Juliet" are both fine little ditties, but we like "Lindsy" — even though she probably doesn't even know we're alive.

Wizards and masterpieces At “Harry Potter: The Exhibition” at the Museum of Science, when a robed attendant places the sorting hat on a visitor’s head and soon after a door whooshes open to reveal the Hogwarts Express, you find yourself filled with the kind of giddy expectation you feel when getting your hands on a Potter book the day it’s released.

Is it magic yet? When you've seen every Boston Ballet Nutcracker for the past 20-odd years, and reviewed most of them, it can get a little hard to locate the magic. Then again, when you survey other Nutcracker s around the world you appreciate that there's no place like home, and not many that are as good.

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!

Mad Men on Mass Ave We have many long, painful, Mad Men– less months stretching ahead of us, as we wait for the show to return to AMC and shower us with more broken marriages, snappy quips, jaw-dropping revelations, and (hopefully) amputated limbs.

Christmas time travel When I needed a bit of help getting into the holiday spirit last week, I decided to kill a bunch of birds and seek that seasonal boost while checking a Portland landmark off my list and getting a history lesson at the same time.

BOSTON PRIDE WEEK: OFF THE MAP | June 07, 2010 We may seem a little cranky, but us local gayfolk just love a parade, and we’re actually heartened by this annual influx of brothers and sisters from every state of New England and every letter of our ever-expanding acronym.

THE NEW GAY BARS | June 02, 2010 If I may channel the late, great Estelle Getty for a moment: picture it, Provincetown, 2009, a dashing young man with no discernible tan and an iffy T-Mobile signal languishes bored upon the sprawling patio of the Boatslip Resort.

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI | BEFORE TODAY | June 01, 2010 If the gradual polishing of Ariel Pink’s sound — and it’s not all that much more polished — puts his loyalists at odds with his albums, I count that as good news.

MORE THAN HUMAN | May 26, 2010 It’s hard to talk about Janelle Monáe when your jaw’s fallen off.